The Legacy of Madiba

In the northern hemisphere, Mandela is often seen as a man of forgiveness, as he spoke of reconciliation with whites after apartheid. In the southern hemisphere, however, he is seen as a representative of the African values of pride, humanism, democracy, and leadership.

Five years after Mandela’s death, we saw populism, radicalization, and social unrest grow amongst us. Human rights, liberty and democracy was being undermined. But in a world, were leadership had become scarce, Mandela’s light was still shining bright for millions of people.

People are measuring today’s leaders up against Mandela, and often find them to fall terribly short. Mandela has not passed his expiry date, at least not to ordinary people. For many of today’s leaders on the other hand, Mandela seems to never have been a role model, but he should have been.

The Global League of Heroes

We need leaders we can respect. In the battle against poverty, oppression and populism, we need to see that we at least achieve some progress. We need the inspiration from the few, brave and principled people who refuse to bow their head against oppression. South-Africans,and the world, were in desperate need of such an inspiration in the 80’s and 90’s. Mind you, brave and principled people was not a scarce commodity in Africa at the time. Lumumba, Nyerere, Kaunda, Machel and Sankara were all role models for millions of people. But, Mandela is still, to this day, the only one who became a hero not only to his own but to a whole world. He stands in the global league of heroes like Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, who transcended the limits of traditional party lines, political systems and government institutions, and showed the world new ways forward with courage. Showed true leadership. And among them, Mandela is the only one who had the opportunity to both lead a liberation movement, and become the elected leader of a nation afterwards.

There are several reasons why Mandela became an international hero. One was that he had an international social movement backing him. He became the living quintessence of a movement seen as spearheading the global crusade against racism and oppression. He gave the struggle a face. Furthermore, the apartheid regime helped boost his image and icon status by incarcerating him for 27 years, helping spin myths and legends about his ideas, thoughts and even his looks. And whilst African liberation movements and freedom fighters generally had tough times in the 60s and 70s, Mandela became an icon and symbol of resistance and pride for the whole continent. We can still identify Mandela’s footprints in present-day social movements across the African continent.

The reasons for Mandela’s legendary status are, however, first and foremost to be found in Mandela’s own personal stature and his principles. In the complex and difficult political process towards democracy in South-Africa, Mandela’s strength was based on his strategic and tactical skills. He was also a man of strong convictions who seldom backed down, who refused when offered to be released from prison, in exchange for abandoning the armed struggle against apartheid. He had a high respect for his leadership responsibility and the responsibility towards the people and the collective, and managed also to charm most people with his personal touch, smiles and humour and his ability to keep focus on “the cause”, rather than the people behind it, something that made it also easier to negotiate the transition and reconciliation with previous enemies in South Africa. Mandela believed in decency and that people are inherently good, something even people on the extreme, far-right respected.

The Troublemaker

Mandela, or “Madiba”, as the people of South-Africa affectionately call him, got his convictions of self-worth, liberty but also stubbornness, tested early as the only black man enrolled at his law school, and when he refused to marry the woman that his family chose for him. He carried with him his pride, but also his stubbornness from his childhood. He came from a family with modest means, but learnt diplomacy and leadership through his family’s connection to a Xhosa king in South-Africa. The English name Nelson was given to him by his teacher when he began school. He has been quoted saying that, ‘why she bestowed this particular name upon me, I have no idea.’ Mandela said that, except for life, his health and the connections to the Xhosa kingdom, the only thing his father gave him was the name Rolihlahla, “troublemaker”. The apartheid regime pointed out Mandela as their nr.1 enemy in the 60’s and the opposition branded him as the “black pimpernel”, a derogatory adaption of the fictional character the “Scarlet Pimpernel”, who evaded capture during the French Revolution. And this is how legends are born.

Mandela earned respect because of his personal qualities, as one of the few educated blacks in the struggle, and with a leadership-style based on pragmatism, collectiveness and tactical skills. He once said that his decision to transform the opposition into an armed resistancewas solely based on tactics, and not ideology. The non-violent struggle of the previous ANC-leader Albert Luthuli, which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for, did not work in the 60’s, according to Mandela.

Mandela spoke for popular democracy. He said that when he grew up, he was profoundly affected by how the clan system operated. People who proclaim that democracy is a western idea is mistaken. The clan-system that was practiced in South-Africa, was consensus-oriented,and decisions were collectively made. He was proud of his heritage, but did not believe he had to pull other people down to maintain that pride. It is in this spirit that Mandela fought against oppression, racism and apartheid. When Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he repeated the same words he had said during his trial;